


Last Man Standing

by Whisper132



Series: The Honorable Society of Meddlers [3]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-11-24
Updated: 2006-11-23
Packaged: 2017-10-23 13:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whisper132/pseuds/Whisper132
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Sengoku came to join the Meddlers</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

  
Sengoku was merely passing through Kanagawa on a whim. He was neither spying nor looking to hook up with girls who knew nothing of his reputation. It was just a day trip, really. A nice, cheap day trip.

"If anyone sees us together, I'm gonna get kicked off the team." The hissing sounded familiar. Sengoku flipped through his mental catalog of rivals until he could put the curly hair and oft red eyes to the sound. Kirihara Akaya.

"Nfu. Are you ashamed of me? Our connection runs so deep, Kirihara-kun." Sengoku would know Mizuki's voice anywhere. Mizuki propositioned Sengoku's tennis – as well as other assets – on a biweekly basis. Usually Tuesdays and Thursdays, fifteen minutes after practice let out. Sengoku stole Mizuki's dayplanner while the manager was reciting the glories of St. Rudolph. After Sengoku's "recruitment period," Mizuki scheduled in "Yuuta Time" and "Seigaku Monitoring."

"Get the hell away from me!"

Sengoku found the quarrelling duo's location just in time to see Kirihara give Mizuki a punch to the shoulder.

"See you next week, Kirihara-kun." Mizuki's laughter trailed behind him as he strolled down the street, leaving Kirihara puffing and red-faced at the corner by a post box.

Casually, Sengoku walked up to the Rikkai regular. "So, you and Mizuki are real tight, huh?"

Kirihara cracked his knuckles. "No. We're not. Go away." He cracked his knuckles again.

"You two seemed awfully snuggly to me, and after you and your teammate were all cuddly on the courts a couple weeks ago." Sengoku clucked his tongue and slid his hands into his pockets. "You're one unlucky fellow. Rebounding on Mizuki is low."

"I'm not rebounding on Mizuki!" Sengoku could hear Kirihara's teeth grinding. This was really fun.

"So you're really interested in him. That's…great." The thought of anyone being earnestly interested in Mizuki Hajime was as disgusting as the thought of doing it with your mom.

"He's my cousin, so fuck off and leave me alone." Kirihara kicked Sengoku in the knee. "If you tell anyone, you'll never play tennis again, got it?"

Sengoku laughed. "You can cripple my legs, but my voice works just fine. Just try shutting me up." He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.

"What do you want?" When Sengoku continued to stare like a fish, Kirihara added, "To shut you up. What do you want?"

Sengoku never considered blackmail before. Neat.

  
&-&

  
"Sengoku-kun is going to practice with us today. Fukubuchou said it was alright." Kirihara stood next to Sengoku, who was paying no attention to the team of regulars glaring at him and was focusing on the herd of cooing girls at the fence. He waved to them and Kirihara smacked him on the arm with his racquet. "He's stupid so you'll probably have to repeat anything you tell him a couple times."

Sengoku waved to the regulars then beat a hasty retreat toward the girls.

"That your new best friend?" Niou asked, pointing to Sengoku.

Kirihara reminded himself that if someone found out, the deal was off and Sengoku would tell everyone his secret. "He's nice," Kirihara grit through his teeth.

Niou shook his head and left, joining Yagyuu for backhand practice.

"What's up with all this?" Marui nodded toward the group of laughing girls. "Didn't know you hung out with Yamabuki."

"He can have friends," Jackal said, dragging Marui away by the arm. "Sanada wants to work on your stamina so you don't spend all the club funds on cakes."

Without thinking, Kirihara took two leaps forward and grabbed onto Marui's arm. The tensai turned to him expectantly. "I, uh," Kirihara was having difficulty not looking at the blush on Marui's cheeks. He blushed the same way that time on the courts, when his pervy friends paid Kirihara to kiss him. "I…we're not really good friends, senpai. Just kinda know eachother. He's not important."

Jackal tugged Marui away before he could respond.

  
&-&

  
After a very unusual practice Marui was, for reasons he couldn't discern, very upset. His upset translated into two hot fudge sundaes and a Raspberry Volcano cake. "What's that?" he asked Kikumaru, pointing with his spoon.

Eiji turned the note in his hands around. "It's a commission from Fujiko. He was wondering if we could help him with something since he's keeping tabs on that project for you."

Jirou swiped the note and read it. "I'm not going to St. Rudolph. It's demeaning." He tossed the note back to Eiji.

Kamio grabbed it before it could land in a strawberry sundae. "It's no big deal, just surveillance," he said, reading through. "Fuji is doing us a big favor, so why don't we just do it?"

Marui shrugged. "I'm in," he said around a mouthful of cake.

Jirou looked as if he was about to protest but he gave in with a wave of his hand and a sighed, "Looks like I'm outvoted."

Kamio entered the mission information in the minutes. "Wanna go check it out?"

Kikumaru said, "Oishi Day," at the same time Jirou said, "Atobe Day." Kamio and Marui ignored them and began planning amongst themselves.

"It's St. Rudolph, so we can probably just walk onto the campus," Kamio said. "The only real problem is going to be explaining why we're there to Mizuki."

"If he asks and doesn't assume we're there to sign ourselves up." The cake tasted a little bitter when Marui thought about having to attend St. Rudolph, the pity school of the Kantou region. "We'll figure it out. Let's get out of here so those two won't be late. Wouldn't want their dates to be ruined."

"You could always ask Kirihara-kun out if you're lonely, Brother Bunta."

Marui threw his spoon at Eiji and left, Kamio not far behind him.

  
&-&

  
Fuji Yuuta had been trying, for the last hour and a half, to work on his serve. First, Yanagisawa interrupted his practice, wanting to know if Yuuta completed his math homework for the next day and could he be a pal and lend it to a friend in need? Then Atsushi came looking for Yanagisawa and felt the need to explain, in detail, why they were no longer going to play doubles and hey, Yuuta, do you think Ryou is cuter than I am? Because he was polite, Yuuta said no, even though he thought Kisarazu Ryou's hair was much cooler and Atsushi's ribbon was girly.

Doubles drama cleverly avoided, Yuuta was now stuck with Mizuki.

"I was thinking, Yuuta-kun, that your topspin is looking sloppy." Mizuki draped an arm over Yuuta's shoulders and took hold of Yuuta's racquet with the opposite hand. "Your form needs to be more fluid. Follow through, Yuuta-kun, follow through."

"I thought his topspin was pretty good."

Mizuki slid off of Yuuta and fussed with his hair. "What have we here? Spies?" He chuckled, a nasal squeak that always made Yuuta cringe. "Come to glean some technique from the bountiful field of St. Rudolph, Marui-kun?" Again, the laugh.

Yuuta tried to shoo Marui away from behind Mizuki's back. The guy was supposed to be a tensai, so the cutting your own throat mime should've clued him into the fact that he was just fueling Mizuki's ego inferno by setting foot on the campus.

"Came by to chat with Fuji Yuuta." Marui waved. Yuuta was just happy to be addressed by his proper name.

Yuuta was less happy when Mizuki embraced him and began pulling him toward the clubhouse. "You can't have him," Mizuki said. "He's my prodigy. Get your own."

Marui didn't need to laugh like that. Rude Rikkai bastard.

"You feel people up during every practice?" Marui asked, pointing to Mizuki's hands, which were clenched around Yuuta's jersey. "They kick people out of school for stuff like that."

"I am not molesting Yuuta." Mizuki did remove his hands after straightening Yuuta's jersey. "It's a family atmosphere here. You wouldn't understand."

All Yuuta wanted was to practice his serve, maybe do some cool down stretches. Everyone else got to practice, and they didn't even have any talent. Yuuta went to Seigaku. He was a member of the Fuji family. He didn't deserve to be mocked by Rikkai and felt up by his team manager. "I'm leaving," he grunted, pushing past the smirking tensai and the chuckling manager. Maybe he'd call home and see if his sister made any pies.


	2. Chapter 2

Sengoku was on top of the world. He just needed a little company. Kirihara-kun would pass as cute, but his attitude was all wrong. You weren't supposed to gag and start flailing if a girl cozied up to you. How was Sengoku supposed to wow the small harem he'd acquired if Kirihara kept ruining things?

"I want to go home," the Rikkai player grumbled. "I have homework."

Despite his bad attitude, the girls begged Kirihara not to leave, said they would cry if he didn't stay. It was a shame, since Sengoku only needed Kirihara there as bait. He could take care of the six girls they'd invited to karaoke, easy.

"I have someone I like," Kirihara said when one of the girls asked if they could meet again, alone.

Sengoku's ears itched. He knew it! It had to be that pink haired kid, the one with the bubblegum. "Excuse us, ladies. We need to discuss something outside. We'll be right back!" At the promise of Kirihara's return, the girls settled down and began leafing through the song catalogue.

"What?" Once outside, Kirihara shook his arm free of Sengoku's hold.

"You could've said you were going out with someone. Now you're cheating on him. I won't tell, of course." Sengoku watched Kirihara, gauging his expression. If Kirihara and the pink kid were together, then Akaya would explode, say that Sengoku ruined his relationship and owed him. If the kid was stuck on the nowhere train, he'd try to weasel out of the question.

"Who cares what you think. I'm going home."

Nowhere train.

Kirihara probably hadn't even been on a proper date before. "I'm going to help you," Sengoku said, tugging Kirihara into a manly hug. "I'm a master in the ways of love."

"You're an idiot from a loser school," Kirihara shot back, stepping on Sengoku's toe. "Leave me alone or I'll tell Sanada." Akaya scampered away, tripping over the occasional outcropping in the sidewalk.

Sengoku looked at Kirihara's keitai, which he'd stolen during the hug. "Let's see. What was that pink guy's name again?"

&-&

  
Yuuta never asked to go to Mizuki's house, but he was always there. Hajime's mother was nice and baked soft, chewy cookies. Hajime's father didn't talk, just nodded and retreated into the folds of his newspaper – he was always reading a newspaper – every time Yuuta came into the room.

"They've finally started to come for you, Yuuta-kun." Mizuki wrapped an arm around Yuuta's waist, even though his mother was standing three yards away, rolling out sugar cookie dough. "We have to be careful."

He was never really sure if Mizuki was hitting on him or was simply taking the St. Rudolph Family Atmosphere to bizarre new heights. Whatever was going on, Yuuta didn't much care for it. He didn't want to socialize after school, he just wanted to play some tennis and improve his game so he could clobber Syuusuke at the next opportunity.

"No one's coming for me," he told Mizuki while they walked to Hajime's bedroom. As they walked, Yuuta eyed the photographs on the hall walls. Mizuki was such a cute little kid. What happened?

"There are spies everywhere, Yuuta-kun. You're hot property and everyone wants in."

It would be nice if Mizuki stopped referring to him as property. It made Yuuta feel like a cheap whore and didn't help to resolve the 'is he flirting?' issue. Yuuta wouldn't really mind it if Mizuki were flirting – at least _someone_ was flirting with him – and it would piss Syuusuke off, but not knowing was getting on his nerves.

"I like St. Rudolph," Yuuta said, slumping down into a bean bag on the floor. "I wouldn't transfer."

Mizuki curled his hair around his finger. "Of course you wouldn't." He patted Yuuta on the shoulder and kneeled before him. "That's not the point, though. The point, Yuuta-kun, is that other teams are clearly scared for next season."

Mizuki's hand landed on Yuuta's knee and Yuuta wondered if he was supposed to agree or disagree and if agreeing meant he was saying he thought St. Rudolph stood a chance next year, which he didn't. Being the youngest member of the phenomenal Fuji family endowed Yuuta with a heavy dose of realism. St. Rudolph sucked and next year they weren't likely to get any better. Yuuta couldn't carry a team on his own. Still, being the big fish in a small pond was better than being crushed to pieces in the great lake of Seigaku.

"Yuuta? Are you listening?" Mizuki squeezed Yuuta's knee and frowned. "We'll need to come up with a counter plan," he said, rubbing at his chin with his free hand. "Excellent! I've got it!" Mizuki shot to his feet and pulled Yuuta up. "Let's go,"

"Go where?"

Mizuki chuckled and twirled his hair. "First, I'm taking you to lunch. Then we'll go to a movie."

Yuuta failed to see how lunch and a movie would help anything, but if Mizuki was paying, Yuuta wasn't complaining.

&-&

  
Jirou was unimpressed with Mizuki's choice of dining facilities. The American style restaurant actually wanted you to throw peanut shells on the ground. There were peanut crumbs and other people's spit caked to the bottom of his lovely cross-trainers.

"Stop glaring at people," Marui said from behind his menu. "You're drawing attention to us."

Marui's near constant bubble popping was also drawing attention, but you didn't see Jirou complaining, did you? In fact, Jirou was doing as he usually did – appearing sleepy and drooling the slightest bit from the right side of his mouth. His eyes didn't even appear to be open. "M'not glaring. I'm napping," he grumbled, burying his head in his folded arms. If he didn't look at the filth, maybe it would go away.

"You're glaring. Just because your eyes aren't all the way open doesn't mean you're not glaring." Marui poked him in the arm. "Stop being such a snob. We're here to do a job."

"Fine," Jirou sighed, stretching his arms in the air and smiling at the waitress bringing their drinks. "Can I get a water, too, please?" The waitress looked put off but nodded and hustled away after she plopped their sodas down. The water probably wouldn't be filtered, either. "What's the plan?" he asked, swirling ice around his glass with a straw.

"We're just supposed to take notes now. Tomorrow, Brother Akira is going to put them together into a formal report for Brother Eiji to give to Fuji." Marui crooked his head toward the St. Rudolph players. "Think they're going out?"

Jirou studied the pair. Yuuta looked confused but a little too laid back to indicate that he was there altogether against his will. Mizuki looked like he enjoyed having a willing audience. It could be a date or it could be two guys at a burger joint swapping information. The two looked disturbingly similar.

Something in Jirou's stomach writhed.

"You don't think people think we're…" The word 'dating' wouldn't roll off Jirou's tongue – the bile was obstructing it.

Marui's eyes widened and his peach soda shot out his nose. "No way. We give off a friends vibe. Those two give off a creepy senpai-kouhai molestation vibe. They're completely different vibes. Let's leave."

Jirou threw some money on the table and the two dashed out, wincing when the waitresses in cowgirl outfits pointed and made cooing sounds.

&-&

  
Marui's phone rang at midnight.

"What the hell is it, Akaya? I'm tryin' to sleep." Marui flopped onto his bed and rolled his eyes. If this was another rant about Sanada being out to get Akaya, Bunta was hanging up.

"You're up! Lucky!" Sengoku Kiyosumi sounded a little too happy to be calling at midnight – from Akaya's phone.

It was too late to deal with this crap. "What do you want and why do you have Akaya's phone?"

"Your little kouhai-kun dropped it while he was on a date today. Your name was the first one I recognized in the address book." Muffled laughter trailed after Sengoku's final words. He must have been holding his hand over the speaker. Smooth.

"Look, give Kirihara his phone back and stop bugging him. That was probably his first date and he was nervous so he dropped it. You pick on him and I'll kick your ass, got it?" Actually, Marui would tell Yukimura, who would send Sanada to kick Sengoku's ass. It was a nice system.

"I'm leaving the phone on your doorstep. Why don't you see that he gets it. With my compliments, of course." The phone disconnected and Marui thought of checking his doorstep for the phone for about five seconds before curling back into bed and falling asleep.

  
&-&

  
When Fujiko was upset, he scratched at a spot just below his elbow. He scratched and scratched and scratched, leaving a white trail in his dry, ashy skin. It was hard to get anything through when Fujiko was upset, he just smiled and agreed with you while your words flew in one ear and out the other. The last words Fujiko had actually heard were 'they might have been on a date.'

"They probably weren't," Eiji said for the fourth or fifth time, praying that, this time, Fuji would respond. "They were eating together and Yuuta laughed once, but that's something normal friends do, right?" Eiji reached out his hand in front of Fuji and began a puppet mime. "Yes Eiji, that's correct. Everything is a-okay and my brother is free to lead his own life." Eiji clapped Fuji on the shoulder. "Good! I'm glad we see eye to eye on this, Fujiko. I'm gonna go find Oishi and see if his mom made him any cookies."

"Eiji?" Fuji reached out and grabbed Kikumaru's wrist in a crusher hold. "Where did they go?"

Eiji consulted the torn piece of notebook paper he'd written the important bits of Kamio's report on. "The Hoedown Café," he said, hoping he was reading the hasty scrawl correctly.

"Yuuta's favorite," Fuji sighed, shaking his head. "They grow up so fast. I'll have to let him spread his wings."

Fujiko needed to stop watching dramas with his sister. He picked up the dumbest phrases and sighed a lot more since he started watching them. "Ne Fujiko, come over to my place tonight. My sister's having a slumber party. You can tell some ghost stories and freak them out."

Fuji's eyes blinked open and a smile settled in. "Excellent." Fuji's nails left his elbow. "Perhaps we can even convince Inui to mix up something wonderful for them."


	3. Chapter 3

Kirihara couldn't concentrate on his lunch, all he could do was stare at his keitai and pretend the entire team wasn't watching him, waiting for him to crack and blurt out an explanation. He couldn't tell them, though, because telling them would mean he'd have to admit being blackmailed into helping the Yamabuki idiot round up girls.

The team would think he liked girls and he'd be ostracized, just like Jackal-senpai. He didn't want to be ostracized, he wanted to be in the team Rikkai mush pot, showered in love and praise and occasionally taking a photo with Yukimura-buchou and showing everybody and rubbing the fact that buchou liked him better than crusty-hatted Sanada into fukubuchou's face.

"You gonna eat that?" Marui tapped Kirihara on the shoulder and Akaya dropped his bento. "Nevermind." Marui clucked his tongue. "You just wasted some really good shrimp."

Marui-senpai's tongue was better than shrimp. It was softer and less stringy.

"Akaya, please don't say such things during lunch." Yukimura patted him on the head.

Crap, did he say that out loud? Akaya looked to Bunta – he was holding his hands clasped over his mouth. Shit.

"Sorry buchou. I won't do it again." Kirihara ducked his head down and tried to curl into a ball.

"You spilled your lunch," Niou said, way too loud to be up to any good. "Let's go get some bread together, my wonderful kouhai."

A melon bread bounced off Niou's head just as he was reaching down to yank Kirihara up. "There," Marui said. He glared at Niou and pointed to the unoccupied patch of grass next to Yagyuu. "Sit your ass down and leave him alone."

Niou-senpai's eyebrows shot up to the zit in the middle of his forehead. It really made Kirihara happy when Yanagi-senpai pointed out that Niou was "experiencing some of the adverse effects of puberty" this morning. The only adverse effects Kirihara had were some occasional fits of disorientation and a weird dream about Marui-senpai and coconuts.

"Something you want to tell me Bunta-kuuun?" Niou flopped down next to Marui and laid his head on the tensai's shoulder.

Kirihara didn't mean to kick Niou so hard. It just happened.

Twice.

"Leg spasm," he said when Niou gave him the finger. Usually Yukimura-buchou would make him apologize if he hit a member of the team, but Yukimura was busy feeding Sanada carrot sticks and talking about how dusty the courts would be getting with all the pollen in the air.

Kirihara's phone vibrated in his pocket and he took it out. It was a text message from cousin Hajime. He wanted to talk about something – Kirihara wasn't sure what because Hajime used archaic kanji just to look smarter. Akaya wrote back that he was busy after school but Hajime should stop by the house tonight for dinner. He should wear something normal and make sure no one saw him enter or leave the Kirihara household or Akaya would kill him.

"Hurry up and eat that or I'm taking it back."

Kirihara jumped and bumped his head into Marui's chin. "Sorry, senpai." Doomed. Marui senpai would never want to hang out with a bread squishing, chin bumping loser.

"Don't worry about it. Just eat the bread and stop moping around. You're not cute when you're pissy." Marui ruffled Kirihara's hair and slunk away to paw at Jackal's lunch.

Marui-senpai thought he was cute. And gave him the bread of love. Suddenly, everything was looking up.

  
&-&

  
Sengoku considered himself a people person. He liked helping people, even if they didn't want his assistance, because it made him feel good inside to know that he'd been of some use in the world. And Kirihara Akaya needed his help.

"Of course you would come to me," Mizuki laughed, leaning over the café table and stealing the last sugar packet. He didn't use it, just pocketed it. "Are you perhaps interested in my cousin?"

Just because he played tennis didn't mean he was into guys. He could break the mold if he wanted to. "I'm just being nice. He helped me out the other day so I'm returning the favor." Also, if Kirihara was distracted, Yamabuki stood a chance at making a comeback at Nationals.

"Cousin Akaya is difficult, you understand. Very difficult." Mizuki reached forward and sipped at his tea. "Coming to me was very smart of you. How unexpected, Sengoku-kun."

Sengoku didn't like the way the St. Rudolph manager said his name. It sounded skeezy. "He's got a crush and I'm trying to convince him to confess. Any suggestions on how I should approach him?" The direct approach would piss Kirihara off and the subtle approach would go over his head. And, since Marui Bunta didn't seem to give a damn about anything, getting the two together by means of Marui was a bust. Sengoku was out of ideas.

"Akaya's mind is very simple. Just tell him he can't do something and he'll be determined to prove you wrong." Mizuki sighed and stared into his half-full teacup. "If only he were a little more like Yuuta-kun. Yuuta is so obedient." Hajime chuckled and continued to watch himself in his tea. "Just a little nudge and he's ready to follow, putty in my skillful hands."

Was Mizuki admitting to molesting his kouhai? Should Sengoku call Yuuta's parents? His brother? Fuji Syuusuke would want to know about this. Sengoku began a text message under the cover of the table.

 _Your brother is in the tentacles of a laughing squid. Watch him closely. It may already be too late._

  
&-&

  
Kamio Akira had several reasons for wanting Sengoku Kiyosumi dead, most of which were directly related to a spandex unitard, a grappling hook, and a pair of Tachibana An's barrettes. The spandex was to lessen wind resistance during his furious bike ride to the St. Rudolph dorms. The grappling hook was to help him repel down from the roof and plant a microphone inside Yuuta's dorm window. The barrettes were in Kamio's hair because he ran across Tachibana-san and An and had to pretend he was on his way to a jazz dancing class and An thought Kamio's hair would get in the way and clipped her barrettes into his hair. Tachibana-san said it was cute so Kamio couldn't take them out now.

At 16:42, Eiji called, frantic. Fuji Syuusuke was freaking out about some text message from Sengoku, claiming that Yuuta was about to be raped by Mizuki and that the previous investigation was faulty. Jirou's debit card funded the needed parts for Marui's weird ficus leaf microphone – really, it was just the innards of a walkie talkie glued to a leaf Marui stole off his mom's plant – and now Kamio was saddled with the dirty work, as usual. At least Eiji would be the one up all night on monitor duty.

Checking his harnesses one more time, Kamio scrambled over the top of the roof and began walking down the building.

"Come here, Yuuta-kun. I have to go soon."

Kamio understood Fuji Syuusuke's concerns - Mizuki was skanky at the best of times and downright lewd at the worst – but if Syuusuke was such a tensai, he should get off his ass and do something instead of sitting in his room with his cacti and bitching. Or maybe he thought outsourcing to a bunch of bored middle schoolers was something tensai were supposed to do.

"Mizuki-san, I'm trying to do my homework. Please leave."

And Yuuta shouldn't just be taking this kind of treatment, unless he had some sort of bully-worship complex. The Fuji family was full of freaks.

Kamio landed next to the window in time for his eyes to be burned out of their sockets. Hastily, he duct taped the leaf to the window, snapped a photo with his keitai, and scrambled back up to the roof. From now on, Fuji Syuusuke could do his own damn spying.

  
&-&

  
The first thing Marui noticed when he got home from Eiji's was the redhead on his bed, a redhead he hated and had no energy to deal with. On the train, some old bastard thought he was a girl and groped him on the chest, then called him a transvestite. Kamio called shortly after, ranting about the trauma of watching Mizuki laying a wet one on Yuuta and wondering if Tachibana-san would be upset if he took the barrettes out because they looked kind of sissy-esqe.

"Long day?" Sengoku asked, grinning and wiggling his eyebrows.

Marui ignored him and searched for his pajamas. He still had math and geography homework to do – maybe he'd ignore it and just go to bed – and his mom wanted him to clean the dishes from the dinner he so rudely neglected to make it home for. He should call Akaya, too, to make sure Niou wasn't bugging him about earlier.

"You're not very friendly, are you?" Sengoku helped himself to a box of chocolates next to Marui's bed. "Kirihara's not so bright, though, so I guess it's okay if he likes you."

Marui grit his teeth and shook off his uniform pants before tugging on a pair of Sugar Daddy pajama pants. He was going to have a snack before starting the dishes, but his appetite was ruined.

"I bet if you went to his house _right now_ you'd really see something else." Sengoku spoke through a mouth stuffed with caramels and white chocolate covered cherries. The cherries were Marui's favorites, dammit.

"How did you get in here," Marui asked, pulling away the half eaten box of chocolates.

"Your mom's really nice. I just told her I knew you from tennis." Sengoku took in Marui's pajamas and snickered. "Wear those to see Kirihara. He'll love 'em."

"You're pretty cozy with Akaya. What've you got on him?" Marui was a tensai. He knew Yamabuki didn't come near Rikkai without a reason. And no one on the planet went near Kirihara unless it was a damn good reason. "If you're taking his lunch money…" Marui let the threat hang because he wasn't sure what kind of threat would work on a non-Rikkai.

Sengoku hopped off Marui's bed and headed toward the door. "I'm not taking his lunch money. The kid's buying you something with it and who am I to stand in the way of love." He put a hand to his heart and made a kissy face. Marui wanted to smash his nose in with a math textbook. "Just come with me and all will be revealed."

Marui contemplated changing out of his pajamas for five seconds before tugging on a jacket and pulling socks on. The pajamas were cozy and no one was going to see him anyway. "Once we're done seeing whatever it is you're gonna show me, you stay away from Akaya. Got it?"

Sengoku just snickered and trotted out of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Mizuki took his familial obligations seriously. He knew that Akaya wasn't the brightest bulb in the family chandelier and needed things spelled out for him in hiragana whenever possible. To get his point across today, Mizuki opted to tell the story of _The Little Engine that Could._ He practiced his delivery on the train and made sure he put in ample time to show Akaya the pictures in the book.

The point in all of this, of course, was to spur Akaya on to confessing his feelings for Marui Bunta, who was an asshole and undeserving of Akaya's affections, but telling Kirihara that was as useless as trying to get Yuuta to forget his stupid brother and focus on Mizuki for five damn seconds a day.

But that was neither here nor there.

Mizuki entered the Kirihara residence and caught his aunt up on all the family gossip. No, his mother wasn't being neglected. Yes, Mizuki had enough to eat and plenty of pocket money. No, he wasn't going to stay the night, he was just visiting cousin Akaya for an hour or so, but maybe next weekend the whole family could get together and have lunch. That would be lovely.

"What did you want?" Akaya asked when Mizuki let himself into the other boy's room. Kirihara lay before a spread of textbooks and loose sheets of paper with what Mizuki assumed were class notes on them.

"We need to talk," Mizuki said, kicking a few papers into a pile and sitting down on the floor. "Relationships are delicate things. If you want him to like you, you need to put some effort into it. I brought a story to illustrate."

Mizuki read his book and Akaya's eyes glazed over until Mizuki started making the engine noises in an 'accurate' manner.

"So you see," Mizuki concluded, snapping the book closed, "if you don't try, you'll never know, and if you never know, you're always going to be stuck in the trainyard of life with the bitchy caboose breathing down your neck. Understand?"

Kirihara raised his hand. "Is the bitchy caboose supposed to be my mom or Buchou?"

Hajime rubbed at his temple and opened the book again. "One more time. _The Little Engine That Could._ Pay attention, please."

  
&-&

  
Incest was never cool, especially incest involving Mizuki. "So, uh, nevermind," Sengoku said, jumping down from the tree outside Kirihara's window. He peeked in just in time to see Mizuki reading a book while Kirihara rested his head on Mizuki's lap. Definitely not the way to get Marui and Kirihara together.

"You still didn't tell me what we're doing at Akaya's. And what do you mean, nevermind?" Marui pushed past and scrambled up the tree.

Sengoku waited for the gagging to start, or a cry of disgust – something. Marui just laughed and climbed down the tree.

"Well?" Sengoku asked, wondering if maybe this was the calm before the storm and the Rikkai player was taking a page from his captain's book and planning horrible revenge for the future.

Marui shrugged. "They're just having a date. Is that why you made me miss dinner? Akaya going on a date? Lame." Marui walked away, waving over his shoulder. "See when your team can win a few games."

"I can see why you don't have many friends," Sengoku grumbled. He could beat Marui Bunta on the courts any day. Maybe. Probably.

  
&-&

  
Eiji understood why Fujiko was upset. It wasn't easy to hear that your brother's boyfriend was two-timing him, especially when you didn't even like the boyfriend to begin with. Still, Fujiko's bitching was getting on Eiji's last nerve.

"Why don't you ask Yuuta about it?" Kikumaru suggested for the third or three hundredth time. "He should know."

"No, don't tell him!" Fuji was pacing and holding a cactus. "It'll break his heart and ruin his faith in men for the rest of his life."

"Then he'll just walk around in his room talking to plants, right?" Eiji confiscated the cactus and set it on the window ledge before it could get whiplash and die. "People are gonna think you're crazy if you keep talking like that."

Fuji shook his head then patted down his hair. "Of course. I'm sorry, Eiji." Fujiko's eyes were still roving around the room, probably looking for something to throw that wouldn't upset his parents, but at least he wasn't pacing. "We should tell Yuuta. I'll call him home immediately."

"I'll leave it to you, then." Eiji gave Fuji a hug and left the house before he had to bear witness to Fujiko's 'I told you so' conversation.

On the way to the bus stop, he dialed Jirou. Akutagawa-kun would know how to diffuse the situation.

"I said hold on Atobe, I'm answering my phone!" There was a pause while Jirou rustled around with something. "Hi. What's up?"

"Mizuki, who Akira caught kissing Yuuta, was caught by Bunta snuggling up with Kirihara and now everything's a mess."

Jirou sighed and Kikumaru could hear muffled shouting. "Hey Atobe! I gotta go out. I'll be back in a couple hours." The reception crackled. "Call everyone to the café and have Marui bring Sengoku with him. I'll make sure Kirihara and Mizuki are there. Have Kamio bring Yuuta. We need to get this cleared up before Atobe's pedicure is done."

  
&-&

  
Sitting beside Mizuki when Marui-senpai was _right there_ was the most nerve wracking experience in Kirihara's short life. It even beat the time he put itch powder in fukubuchou's uniform pants. And, to top it all off, there were a million other people shoved into the small corner booth of the ice cream shop. At least dessert was free, though.

"It's all your fault," Kirihara hissed at Sengoku. He kicked him under the table for good measure. "If you weren't an asshole everything would be fine."

"I was _trying_ to help you," Sengoku said, loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear.

"Akaya doesn't need you," Mizuki said. "He has me." He moved to loop his arm around Akaya but was intercepted by a mochi to the eye.

"No molesting my kouhai, thanks." Marui tossed another mochi in his hand. "Rikkai has an image to maintain."

If Marui-senpai wasn't going to throw that mochi, Kirihara wanted to keep it as a souvenir. Marui was a great senpai, but he rarely rode in to anyone's aid. Usually, he just watched and laughed, then sent Jackal to fix things.

The Fudomine guy – Kato? Kamio? something – clinked a spoon against his parfait glass. "I'll now review the situation as it stands. Please leave any corrections until after the briefing." Fudomine-kun opened a notebook – Yanagi-senpai said only low-brained pansies needed notebooks. "According to our observations, Mizuki," here he pointed to cousin Hajime, "is currently in a relationship with Fuji Yuuta."

"We're not in a relationship!" Fuji Yuuta's scream drew the attention of the entire shop. Now it was _very_ obvious that Kirihara and Marui-senpai were surrounded by kids from loser schools. At least they were a good distance from home – hopefully Marui-senpai would ride the bus home with him so he didn't fall asleep and miss his stop again – so no one would be able to tell fukubuchou.

"Don't interrupt." The sleepy kid from Hyoutei looked pissy. Maybe those ugly ass pants were riding up.

"However, Mizuki was also seen in Kirihara's room earlier today in a compromising position, leading us to believe that he is not only in a relationship with Fuji-kun, but with Kirihara-kun as well." Fudomine-kun looked over his notebook, expecting Kirihara to object. Kirihara couldn't object, he was too busy choking on bile.

This was all Sengoku's fault.

"I'll kill you!" Kirihara screamed as he launched across the table.

  
&-&

  
While everyone moved to protect Mizuki, Marui watched Kirihara fly toward Sengoku and grab him by the throat.

Wow. Akaya could really move.

"I'm not dating Akaya!" Mizuki growled. It was weird how Yuuta didn't seem to care about the fuss going on around them, he just kept drinking his chocolate shake, occasionally stealing some of the crust from Mizuki's fruit tart.

"Choking!" Sengoku wheezed. It looked like Kirihara wasn't gonna let go.

Marui tapped Akaya on the arm. "If you're in jail for murder you won't be able to play at nationals," he said, figuring that was what Seiichi would say to stop the problem, and Kirihara always listened to Seiichi.

"I'm not dating _that_." Kirihara said. "He's my cousin. And he's Mizuki. That'd be gross."

"A correction, then." Kamio scratched something out in the notebook and began writing. "Mizuki is in a relationship with Fuji Yuuta. Mizuki is sexually molesting Kirihara, who is his cousin. Sengoku is…has…why are you here?"

"He found out Mizuki was my cousin and was blackmailing me into going on dates with girls." Kirihara scooted closer to Marui. "It was gross, senpai. They touched me in places I didn't want to be touched."

"They touched your hair," Sengoku grumbled.

"Well I didn't want them to!" Akaya burrowed into Marui's side, looping his arms around Bunta's waist.

Eiji snickered and Jirou made a kissy face. Marui scratched Akaya's head and gave his two friends the finger through scraggly curls. "Don't worry. We won't let him bother you anymore. Now get up, you're slobbering on my shirt."

Akaya sniffed and scooted back. "Sorry, senpai." He reached for a glass of water and sipped at it forlornly.

Marui caught the glare Sengoku was giving him. Crap. He'd just kicked the team puppy. Excellent. "It's okay. Don't worry about it." He reached forward and ruffled Akaya's hair again. He wasn't sure why he liked the greasy feel of it, but the smooth way Akaya's hair curled around Marui's fingers was calming. "Want another dessert or something?"

Jirou coughed. "Business, then more desserts."

  
&-&

  
"I think I've finally got it all figured out," Kamio mumbled, drawing a few connector lines in his graph. "Kirihara and Mizuki are cousins. Sengoku found out and blackmailed Kirihara into going on dates. At some point, Sengoku also started trying to get Kirihara to confess to Marui, which is what Mizuki's also trying to do." He looked up from his notebook. "We were just hanging around, checking different schools out when we noticed that Fuji Yuuta and Mizuki are in a relationship, which Fuji Syuusuke knows about because he asked Kikumaru." Kamio paused, waiting for Fuji Yuuta to again complain that people shouldn't be telling his brother every little detail of his life. Yuuta seemed a little preoccupied trying to get Mizuki's arm off his chest, though. "Have I got it right?"

"Sounds good to me," Sengoku said. He raised his hand and flagged a waitress. "Excuse me, could I get another piece of chocolate cake? It tastes as good as you look." He handed her his name card. "In case you have trouble finding me."

"You're gross," Kirihara mumbled through purrs. Marui was still scratching his head.

"I can't believe that crap works for you," Marui said, shaking his head. "Don't you ever get slapped?"

"We're going home!" Mizuki announced. He grabbed Yuuta's hand and pulled. "You've demeaned our beautiful bonding of souls enough for today. Come, Yuuta." Yuuta mumbled thanks for dessert while trying not to stumble into Mizuki's back.

"Atobe's pedicure should be done soon." Jirou walked to the front to pay while Sengoku wolfed down a second helping of cake and leered at the waitress, who was a giggling idiot.

Why was it that all of these people were getting some and Kamio was dead in the water? Well, Marui wasn't getting any, but he probably would be soon. Kirihara looked ready to fall asleep or pounce – one or the other – and, given Rikkaidai's track record, the latter was more likely.

"You know," Sengoku whispered, "if you let me in on this little club you've got going, I bet I could get you hooked up with that Tachibana-san you're always talking about."

Sengoku was a liar. No one could get Tachibana to fall for him. No one.

The waitress dropped a mint on Sengoku's lap. "In case you have trouble finding me," she said.

Sengoku turned the wrapper around and flashed the waitress' phone number to Kamio. "Lucky," he snickered before pocketing the mint.

"Hey guys, Sengoku-kun's going to come have snacks with us next Wednesday. He could be useful."

Eiji grinned and Marui slid away from Akaya, sending him home with a pat on the head and money to cover the bus. "You're kidding me," Marui grumbled. "Him? He's…"

Marui halted as Kirihara ran back into the café. "Senpai! Saturday! Date! Me! You! Call me!" Kirihara ran out, pumping his fist in self congratulations.

"Fine. Whatever. I gotta go." Marui bolted out the door and nearly skid into an old woman.

"Any complaints you two?" Kamio looked to Eiji and a recently returned Jirou.

Jirou smiled and crooked his thumb toward the door. "He got the job done. I say he's in."

"Just no girls on club time," Eiji said, eyeing the mint.

Sengoku's smarmy grin was less than reassuring. "Of course not. I wouldn't dream of it." He slid the mint into his pocket and gave it a pat. "So," he said. "Where do you think they're going on their date and how long do you think it'll take to set up some spy stations?"

The three remaining Meddlers shared a look before reaching forward to pat Sengoku on the shoulder. "Consider it your first project," Kamio said, writing the mission down in the notes. "Give us a call if you need help."

"But…wait…"

"Good luck Brother Kiyosumi. We're counting on you!" Jirou left, already dialing Atobe's number.

"Welcome to the club," Eiji said. He polished off a piece of chocolate mousse pie in one bite and skipped out.

Kamio rather enjoyed seeing Sengoku so put upon. Even his hair wilted when he was discouraged. "Don't worry. I'll help, just as soon as you figure out a way to get Tachibana-san to notice me."

Sengoku looked up from the wasteland of dishes and napkins that was their table. "Don't worry," he sighed. "I'll think of something."


End file.
